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Comment by tptacek | Hacker News Reader

Just like taxes, speed limits, and vaccinations!

Those all contain problems, which can and should be solved.

You don't want to find ways to reduce (or eliminate) taxes, without any negative side effects?

You wouldn't approve of a way to deliver vaccinations that hurts less than a needle? (Personally I don't mind it, but some people do.)

You wouldn't approve of finding a way to let people travel faster? One without negative side effects, of course.

You seem to be advocating for the status quo, and denying improvement is possible.

Thanks for giving me a message board thread to geek out on while waiting for dinner to cook, and, I suppose, for inducing me to consider TCS; have a happy new year.

not so much being a pessimist, but being a realist. hope is nice and all, but are you seriously going to invent a new vaccination mechanism before your child needs her MMR shots? you may not mind injections, but I've never seen an infant or toddler that was much of a fan. given that, will you spare your child the discomfort of the needle and expose her to the risk of catching an easily preventable (and dangerous) infection? measles are far less pleasant than an injection. life is punctuated by the occasional unpleasantness and protecting your child from that entirely until adulthood does her a great disservice.

My daughter is 7 and she will take your eyes out before she lets you poke her with a needle --- and that's after the inevitable well-reasoned, polite, non-patronizing conversation about why vaccinations are important, which she of course understands and appreciates.

Vaccinations are easy. just offer topical anesthetic and be nice about it. the reason people have problems with them is they don't think about the kids at all, and don't give the kid any control over the situation, and scare them.

Each of your three reasons is presumptive, mildly insulting, and ultimately incorrect --- is what I'd say if I was insisting on being a message board geek.

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Today there are all sorts of simple solutions, such as anesthetic, or just the doctor being nice is usually good enough. Why did you bring up vaccinations? They are easy!

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well that's great that you know how to get rid of bad doctors and find nice ones, and consider that worth the effort just to help your kid be happier! what do you disagree about then?

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You must be doing something else wrong then. Because in fact vaccinations are good, and not very painful especially with anesthetic.

I don't say this to insult you. I say it because problems have solutions. That is what you seem to be trying to deny. You want to say this thing went wrong, and therefore children must be hurt, it's inevitable, and trying to prevent it is crazy. I take the view that when people are hurt, someone has made a mistake, and we can try to do better.

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I like privacy, and consider peoples' personal lives to be irrelevant to discussions of ideas.

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Please stop guys.

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